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“Hope” drives, entertains sports fans

Joey Aguirre, Sports EditorOctober 7, 2011

At the beginning of each season, every fan of every sports franchise has this glimmer of, “Hope” that makes them believe their team will win it all that year.

It’s that undeniable force that drives all sports fans to buy those expensive tickets, drink those $9 beers and eat those $5 hot dogs. “Hope” – it’ll drive you insane.

“Hope” is the reason you drive around the Suites parking lot, thinking there will be a spot, but then you end up parking by Nielson and wasting time and gas. Why’d you drive around looking like a fool? Because you had “Hope.”

“Hope” it’s what every Cubs fan has before the start of every season. Yeah, its been over a hundred years since the “Lovable Losers” have won a World Series, but every year is their year. Until May when they wake up.

Those poor Bills’ fans had “hope” when they went to the Super Bowl four consecutive years and some how managed to lose each year, all in spectacular fashion.

I also had this disorder called “Hope.” “Hope” that my hometown team, the St. Louis Cardinals, would figure out how to put everything together and string some wins together to make it to the playoffs.

It took the Cardinals until September to figure this method out. The pitchers pitched, very well, the offense scored runs, (St. Louis finished no. 5 in the last regular season offensive power rankings) and the defense finally tied it all together.

The Cardinals and Rays came into September each 8.5 games back from the wildcard lead, and on Sept. 28, they were needing to win and the Braves and Red Sox needed to lose in order to make the playoffs. The Cardinals beat the Houston Astros 8-0, then sat and watched the events unfold over the next hour.

It seemed as though it was meant to be, the Red Sox all-star closer blew a save. Four minutes later, before the Red Sox could even walk off the field, the Rays completed a seven-run comeback, capped off by a game-ending home-run.

The Braves waited longer, going into extra innings, before getting beaten by the Philadelphia Phillies, causing this Cardinal fan to run up and down the L Apartments hallways chanting, “We’re in the playoffs!”

These last two weeks are why we, as sports fans, root for our teams, through thick and thin, no matter what the season has been like, good or bad. Sports give us a brief escape from reality; from the car payments, the cell phone bill and during whatever game we watch, we hope our team wins, because when they win, we win.